[C] [A/N] Motion Enervation

Critical Strikes: 11+2
Dagger Mastery: 11+3
Curses: 8

Weaken Knees, 5e 1 5s *elite
Hex. For 22 seconds, if target foe is struck while moving that foe is knocked down and Weaken Knees ends.
Black Mantis Thrust, 10e - 10s
Lead. If this attack hits, you strike for +20 damage. If target foe is suffering from a Hex, that foe is Crippled for 15 seconds.
Jungle Strike, 5e - 10s
Offhand. Must follow a lead attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +20 damage. If it hits a foe that was Crippled, it does +29 damage.
Critical Strike, 10e - 6s
Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +27 damage and results in a critical hit.
Falling Spider, 5e - 8s
Offhand. Must strike a knocked-down foe. If it hits, Falling Spider strikes for +34 damage and target foe is Poisoned for 19 seconds.
Critical Eye, 5e - 30s
Skill. For 32 seconds, you have an additional 6% chance to land a critical hit when attacking. You gain 1 Energy whenever you score a critical hit.
Rigor Mortis, 10e 2 30s
Hex. For 15 seconds, target foe cannot "block" or "evade".
Rez Sig

Weaken Knees has the potential to change the game. It's like Bull Strike, in as that it makes it dangerous to kite- except it's a thousand times easier to use. You don't have to cast this hex while the opponent is moving, you only need to hit him sometime in the next 22 seconds. It's versatile- at 5e and 5s recharge, you can focus on one poor sucker or spread the hex around for a more diffuse disruption.
The combination of Weaken Knees and Black Mantis Thrust puts the enemy in a doublebind. If they run, they'll be knocked down (and my theory says that if the first strike that hits them is BMT, they'll be KD'd and crippled). If they stay put, they'll be crippled and still hexed with Weaken Knees.
The lead -> offhand strikes both recharge in 10 seconds, and go to a dual that recharges in 6. To make better use of the dual attack, and to add additional threat to being KD'd by this Assassin, I've added Falling Spider, which recharges every 8 seconds. A foe that's been knocked down recieves a free offhand-dual combo, almost independent of the main lead-offhand-dual chain (because the recharge on Critical Strike is nearly half that of the starter chain).
Rigor Mortis is probably the best option for overall team utility, but it can be subbed for a few things. Plague Touch and Expunge Enchantments are some of the better choices, though Mark of Instability would work as well.

Heh...I've already been working on GvG build prototypes where a Weaken Knees Necromancer carries pretty much the entire team's knockdowns. It is a game-changing skill alright. Even without any Curses, you've got five seconds in which to KD the target, which is more than enough for most people to do the job. WK is going to pretty much single-handedly shut down almost every other KD skill out there. Only competition would be Shove, I think, and Shove dumps Adrenaline, recharges three times slower, and requires touch range. While WK can KD from range with the use of a switch bow/wand and, as has been stated, cover an entire team.

That said, back on topic. I'm not sure you're making the best use of it here, though you're certainly not making the worst. This is something of a standard-issue Assassin onto which WK has been bolted. Rigor's there, yeah, but I've never liked Rigor before and I don't much like it now. Falling Spider is a good idea, though, but I wonder if, perhaps, using Black Lotus Strike wouldn't be a better idea? BLS -> FS -> choice of dual, if ye even want a dual.

I suppose I'm not really complaining, just noting that the synergy seems off here for some reason. Curses integration is minimal and seems a bit ill-thought-out to me, but there's nothing actually wrong with performance.

Guess I posted just to wax eloquent on how cool Weaken Knees is

There are only two 'neat tricks' in the build as it is- the interaction of Black Mantis Strike and Weaken Knees as a catch 22 and the extra usage of my dual attack visa vis Falling Spider.

Rigor Mortis is not intended for my personal use, by the way- it's there for when Big Daddy Adrenal's ready to lay down his thing on some poor sucker. As a whole, this build is meant for either GvG or HA.

Since WK is a KD skill, I wonder what the build would look like if it were complete KD...

Quote: Critical Strikes: 13 (11+2)
Dagger Mastery: 13 (10+3)
Deadly Arts: 7 (6+1)
Curses: 8

Weaken Knees, 5e 1 5s *elite
Hex. For 22 seconds, if target foe is struck while moving that foe is knocked down and Weaken Knees ends.
Mark of Instability (Deadly Arts)
For 22 seconds, the next time you hit target foe with a dual attack skill, that foe is knocked down.
Energy:10 Cast:1 Recharge:20
Black Mantis Thrust, 10e - 10s
Lead. If this attack hits, you strike for +20 damage. If target foe is suffering from a Hex, that foe is Crippled for 15 seconds.
Jungle Strike, 5e - 10s
Offhand. Must follow a lead attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +20 damage. If it hits a foe that was Crippled, it does +29 damage.
Critical Strike, 10e - 6s
Dual Attack. Must follow an off-hand attack. If it hits, this attack strikes for +27 damage and results in a critical hit.
Falling Spider, 5e - 8s
Offhand. Must strike a knocked-down foe. If it hits, Falling Spider strikes for +34 damage and target foe is Poisoned for 19 seconds.
Critical Eye, 5e - 30s
Skill. For 32 seconds, you have an additional 6% chance to land a critical hit when attacking. You gain 1 Energy whenever you score a critical hit.
Rez Sig The numbers for MoI are probably off a bit, but I think it would serve you better than Rigor Mortis. Let a dedicated Necro handle that. And if you really wanted to get evil...figure out a way to slip in Horns of the Ox and you'd have a nasty little KD build, I think.

WK-->MoI-->Black Mantis Thrust (KNOCKDOWN from Weaken Knees)-->Jungle Strike-->Critical Strike (KNOCKDOWN from MoI)-->Falling Spider-->WK-->Critical Strike (KNOCKDOWN from Weaken Knees)-->Falling Spider-->MoI (if possible)-->Critical Strike (KNOCKDOWN from MoI)

Sweet zombie Jesus...if the energy holds up...that's insane.

No 16 in weapon mastery makes baby Jesus cry...

as a melee type, without maximum in your fighting stat, it's like a warrior without 16 weapon

People will scoff at you and all that jazz... Just rework the stats a bit and get that 16 daggers...

From what people have calculated, 16 daggers is more dangerous than 13/13 since double attacking apparently has seperate chances to crit... More double attacking > more crits in that regard...

How about subbing in Ninetail Strike instead of Critical Strike. On top of only costing 5 energy, it's unblockable and unevadable.

You still have to hit them whilst moving... which means the criteria is exactly the same for bulls strike. Both cost 5 energy, WD has a shorter cooldown, Bull strike is non-elite, and strikes for +damage, at the sacrifice of 3s of cooldown.
As for spreading it around, you can only spread it as far as you have warriors to attack.
At its current reading, it suggests that wand attacks will trigger it... which will make it interesting.
Putting it with rangers before rspike is another interesting combination... orders lost its elite... maybe its found a new one. I expect it to be changed to something like '...when struck by physical attacks...'
For warriors.. there are actually limited options in comparison for innovation. The only thing i might suggest is now instead of leading to a KD spike with Bulls-Eviscerate... you may now lead with Eviscerate directly.
I also might suggest Twisting Fangs... if anything makes baby jesus cry its deep wounds with instant covers (although it might be the other way around)

The difference between Weaken Knees and Bull's Strike is that Bulls Strike has a 1 second activation, next to them, while they're moving. Weaken Knees has a 1 second activation- anywhere in casting range, anytime. Then the Bulls Strike effect triggers sometime in the next 20 seconds, requiring only a normal attack.
It can be spread around, because the effect will wait there for about half a minute, and can be triggered by anyone with a weapon. I would combine Weaken Knees with a Spirit of Earthbinding for some spammable kite-punishing 3 second knockdowns.

As for the attribute numbers, I can't really send Critical Strikes below 13- the extra doublestrike criticals aren't going to make up for 1e on each of them. I think Assassins are melee-utility hybrids, whereas Warriors are melee spike monsters. You don't max a ED mesmer's Dom to 16, but you always gotta get an Air Spike Ele to the max numbers- 16 or even 18.

Agreed, Fisher. Critical Strikes likes to be at 13 and you're doing plenty of damage with it such. And, honestly, I almost see this thing as more of a WK spammer for the team that can also attack. My prototype GvG builds use a dedicated Curse-O-Mancer for WK work, but this guy could accomplish the same and give your build another fist. Though I must say the Reckless Haste/Shadow of Fear combo also installed on my Legbreaker prototype is fun XP.

Still, Weaken Knees > Bull's Strike. Give everyone in the Guild a recurve bow and everyone in the Guild has a knockdown. Necromancer can trigger his own knockdowns for kiting/self-defense. Hit WK, smack the guy, he goes down, the Necro runs like a scared rabbit. Overall, it's one of the most useful and versatile Curses I've seen in a long time.

Can't wait to get ahold of it